Jason Crome from Best Practical recently attended the Perl and Raku Conference 2024 in sunny (and hot!) Las Vegas, Nevada. In addition to giving a talk about improving your README on github, Jason attended other presentations and pulled together a list of the most interesting. And the best part is that the conference posts all videos from the conference on YouTube for free, so you can watch too!
Building a Better README
If you watch the Request Tracker repository on GitHub, you may have noticed some big improvements in our README file over the past year. Traditionally the README file was a quick-start guide written in plain text and read in a terminal window. But GitHub has changed that dynamic and the README has become a project’s homepage for developers. A good README not only helps users understand a project but also attracts contributors and builds a stronger community around the code.
Jason shared some of what we learned as we revised our README, like deciding what information to include, how best to structure a README, and how to make it visually appealing and inviting to those unfamiliar with a project.
Modern Browser Automation in Perl Using Playwright
One of the ways we keep RT running correctly as we do new development is running our automated test suite, which includes more than 42,000 automated tests. Testing a web application involves simulating a browser to confirm things work as expected. As you might imagine, this requires some special libraries to run automatically on a server, and these libraries have changed over time.
One of the newer libraries for automated browser testing is called Playwright, and one of the presentations talked about how to manage Playwright from Perl. RT doesn’t use Playwright yet, but this gives us some interesting new ideas.
The Test2 Ecosystem: Next-Level Testing
Perl has a long history of providing a robust environment for automated testing. And like all technology, it’s always changing and improving. The Test2 Ecosystem provides an in-depth look at the Test2 Perl framework and many of the new tools and libraries now available. Updates include options to speed up tests, improved diagnostics, better control over test execution, and the ability to create custom testing tools.
Tips for your Next Las Vegas Vacation
No conference in Vegas would be complete without a nod to the city's iconic gaming scene. Casino Gaming for the Mathematically Inclined is a fascinating dive into the world of probability, statistics, and game theory as applied to casino games. R Geoffrey Avery explores the mathematical principles behind popular casino games like blackjack, poker, and roulette, explaining which games offer the best odds and which games should be avoided. Even if you don’t like the math, it’s a very helpful presentation before your next trip to Vegas.
Many More Presentations
We’ve covered just a tiny sample of the many presentations from the conference this year and you can search and view all of the other sessions on the Perl and Raku Conference YouTube channel. And if you search, you’ll see videos are available for past years as well, so there are many hours of great content to watch and learn from. Thanks to all of the organizers and presenters for another great conference!